Ronald Wilson Reagan

Speech on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Announcement of the Strategic Defense Initiative, March 23rd, 1993. Washington, D.C.

Good morning. It's a pleasure to be able to speak to you today on
this tenth anniversary of my announcement of the Strategic Defense
Initiative. Above all I want to thank all of you for the hard work
and perseverance you have shown through the years in supporting and
shaping this very important program. It is as true today as it was
ten years ago that this effort holds the promise of changing the
course of human history, by freeing the world from the ominous threat
of ballistic missile attack. Given the choice, shouldn't we seek to
save lives rather than avenge them? I think we should. And indeed,
now we can.

Ten years ago when I asked the scientific community to give us the
means of defending against the threat of ballistic missiles, I said
there would be risks, and that results would take time. Well, I'm
proud to say that these scientists and engineers boldly embraced this
challenge, and in only a few short years broke new technological
ground in developing innovative systems capable of providing
effective and affordable defenses against missile attacks anywhere in
the world. It is a tremendous achievement, worthy of the great
scientific accomplishments of this century.

As you know, however, critics of SDI from the very beginning have
been all too eager to denounce the program (and if it weren't for
George Lucas, maybe we would have been off to a better start). But
over the years, these critics have been disproved time and time
again. Today we know that we can defend ourselves, that the threats
have not disappeared -- many new threats, in fact, are rapidly
emerging -- and that Russia and our European allies have expressed
their desire to cooperate with us in developing a global system of
missile defenses.

This should be good news. Unfortunately, there is a stubborn
contingent of policy-makers who insist on abiding by the obsolete ABM
Treaty and support only extremely limited missile defenses, or even
none at all. Yet I believe their efforts will not stop the progress
we have made and the progress we have yet to make. The wisdom of the
program we launched a decade ago will prevail, and America will not
remain forever defenseless against ballistic missile attack.

Now more than ever it is vital that the United States not back down
from its efforts to develop and deploy strategic defenses. It is
technologically feasible, strategically necessary and morally
imperative. For if our nation and our precious freedoms are worth
defending with the threat of annihilation, we are surely worth
defending by defensive means that ensure our survival.